Material Empire

The rare earths that people often say are actually a collective name for 17 metal elements, namely lanthanum, cerium, praseodymium, neodymium, promethium, samarium, europium, gadolinium, terbium, dysprosium, holmium, erbium, thulium, ytterbium, lutetium, scandium, yttrium . According to different physical and chemical properties, rare earths are divided into light rare earths and heavy rare earths. Light rare earths include the above seven elements from lanthanum to europium, and heavy rare earths are the remaining 10 elements.

The content of rare earth elements in the earth's crust is not low, but only the rare earth elements enriched together can form mineral deposits with mining value. The rare earth ores discovered so far are mainly divided into monazite, bastnaesite, xenotime and ion-adsorption rare earth ores.

Monazite and bastnaesite are widely distributed. For example, the famous Mountain Pass Rare Earth Mine in California is a bastnaesite. The rare earths produced by these two mines are mainly light rare earths such as lanthanum and cerium.

Xenotime and ion-adsorbed rare earth ores are mainly heavy rare earths, and the latter contains the most complete heavy rare earth elements. However, this kind of rare earth ore has only been found in southern my country, and has never been found in other countries.

Due to the different distribution of mineral deposits including different rare earth elements, the proven reserves of various rare earth elements vary greatly, which in turn affects their respective prices. Among the various rare earth elements, lanthanum and cerium of the light rare earth series are the cheapest, and were once called "cabbage price". The prices of praseodymium, neodymium and other elements are slightly higher, but they are not expensive. In contrast, the prices of heavy rare earths are quite different. The prices of oxides of dysprosium and terbium are hundreds of times higher than those of lanthanum and cerium oxides, and dozens of times higher than those of praseodymium and neodymium oxides.

After clarifying the distinction of rare earths and the difference in price, it is not difficult to understand why various institutions that study rare earth permanent magnet materials focus on light rare earths. The reason is nothing more than hoping to reduce the price of permanent magnet materials so that they can be used more widely.

The main material of NdFeB is light rare earth neodymium, and the price of neodymium oxide per ton is only 30,000 to 40,000 US dollars, which makes the price of NdFeB can be controlled below 30,000 US dollars per ton. If the main rare earth materials are replaced with dysprosium and terbium, which are ten times more expensive, the price of new permanent magnet materials will inevitably increase by more than ten times, which is unbearable for industries using permanent magnet materials.

After Sun Yuzhi revealed that the new permanent magnet material is a mixed sintered material of dysprosium iron boron and terbium iron boron, the first thing Hirano thought of was the cost issue.

Even if the magnetism of the new permanent magnet material is higher than that of NdFeB, if its price is more than 10 times that of NdFeB, its market value will be greatly reduced.

Before Sadao Hirano could figure this out, Sun Yuzhi's next sentence completely destroyed his hesitation: "After our experiments, the Curie temperature of dysprosium-terbium-iron alloy can reach 700 degrees Celsius, which is much higher than that of neodymium iron boron. 350 degrees Celsius."

The so-called Curie temperature is simply the temperature at which a magnet loses its magnetism. One of the fatal weaknesses of NdFeB is that its Curie temperature is only about 350 degrees Celsius. Even if it is improved by adding other elements, it can only be raised to about 460 degrees Celsius. Because the Curie temperature is too low, in some high-temperature occasions, NdFeB is useless.

Just because he knew this weakness of NdFeB, when Sun Yuzhi said that the Curie temperature of the new permanent magnet material could reach 700 degrees Celsius, Sadao Hirano's eyes widened all of a sudden, and he immediately realized that this The emergence of a new type of material will pose a fatal threat to NdFeB.

No, we must obtain the patent authorization of dysprosium-terbium-iron alloy, otherwise we will be squeezed out from the permanent magnet material market. NdFeB will become an obsolete low-end material, and even if it is not eliminated, its profit margin will be squeezed to an extremely pitiful level.

Once Sadao Hirano understood this truth, he immediately dropped his previous arrogance and said to Qin Hai: "Chairman Qin, please allow me to congratulate you for discovering this new type of permanent magnet material. NdFeB is a new material with a comparable status. Chunshan Club is very interested in cooperating with your company on this new material, and I don’t know what terms of cooperation you hope for.”

Qin Hai said indifferently: "Mr. Hirano, what you just said is wrong. The emergence of dysprosium-terbium-iron alloy is not only equivalent to NdFeB, but may completely replace NdFeB. I think you should be able to See."

"This...I'm afraid Chairman Qin is too optimistic?" Sadao Hirano said bravely. What Qin Hai said happened to be exactly the same as his thinking, but he couldn't openly express his agreement. Only by depreciating the value of dysprosium-terbium-iron alloy can he win the best cooperation conditions for Chunshan Club, which he understands very well.

Nakagawa Motohisa also thought about this problem, and he interjected unwillingly: "Chairman Qin, you should know that NdFeB is a mature product, and dysprosium-terbium-iron alloy is not yet mature enough..."

As soon as these words came out, Sadao Hirano almost had a desire to strangle this pig teammate to death. Maturity and immaturity are relative things, and immature technologies will eventually become mature. Nakagawa Motohisa's words sounded like he was belittling the value of the dysprosium-terbium ferroalloy, but in fact he passed the talk to his opponent.

Of course, Qin Hai would not miss this opportunity. He laughed and said, "Mr. Zhong Chuan said it well. Dysprosium-terbium ferroalloy has just come out, and it is still very immature. However, even such an immature product, it also shows In addition to surpassing the competitiveness of NdFeB, does this mean that this product has great market potential? We are very willing to work with Chunshan Company to improve this new material and make it reach a higher level. If Chunshan Club at this time I am unwilling to participate in joint development, and when this technology matures in the future, the conditions for cooperation may be higher than now.”

"Uh, Chairman Qin, you can't say that...the price of dysprosium-terbium-iron alloy is much higher than that of neodymium-iron-boron. This is an undeniable defect. We believe that this defect will seriously hinder the market promotion of dysprosium-terbium-iron alloy. "Sadao Hirano said.

Sun Yuzhi said: "Mr. Hirano, we have already realized the problem you mentioned. We are now working hard to improve this product, trying to reduce the content of dysprosium and terbium by adding other elements, so that it can effectively reduce its content. The price is up. I have already told Chairman Qin that if we can get the support of Chunshan Company, our research process will be greatly accelerated."

"Sun Jun's kindness, I am very grateful." Hirano Sadao bowed slightly to Sun Yuzhi, then turned to Qin Hai and said, "Chairman Qin, just as Sun Jun said, the participation of our Chunshan Company will help your company to improve itself." Terbium-iron alloy materials are helpful, so we hope that your company can propose a more sincere cooperation condition, so that both of us can reach a cooperation intention as soon as possible.”

"Hmm... okay." Qin Hai pretended to be hesitant, and said, "Professor Sun did tell me that he hopes to cooperate with Chunshan Company, especially Mr. Hirano and Mr. Zhongchuan. Our consideration is that we hope What do Mr. Hirano think of the exchange of NdFeB patents with Chunshan Company by using the patents of dysprosium-terbium-iron alloys, and both parties can improve the products within the scope of the patents, and the technology can be shared by both parties?"

NdFeB was invented by the Japanese. At the beginning of the invention, Japanese companies applied for patents for a full range of products, among which the patents owned by Chunshan Company are the most critical. Under the protection of patents, if enterprises in other countries want to produce NdFeB products, they must pay patent fees to Chunshan Company. Even if these enterprises have carried out technological innovations and developed new products, as long as the main component is NdFeB When it comes to patent issues, you can't get around it.

Sad to say, in fact, Chinese scholars' research on NdFeB is not later than Japanese scholars. It is only because of insufficient patent awareness and lack of attention to commercialization of technology that this important patent of NdFeB has been rejected by the Japanese. exclusive possession. Before the NdFeB patent expired, China, as a big NdFeB producer, handed over a large amount of profits to the Japanese every year.

Qin Hai understood the cause and effect of this incident. If he could travel a few years earlier, he might have obtained the NdFeB patent before the Japanese. Now, the NdFeB patent has been occupied by the Japanese. What he can do is to exchange the patent of the dysprosium-terbium-iron alloy newly developed by Sun Yuzhi with the Japanese.

"Patent exchange?" The condition proposed by Qin Hai made Sadao Hirano startled, and then fell into deep thought.

Sadao Hirano is very clear about the value of NdFeB patents. If this patent is shared with Daqin Group, once Daqin Group enters the NdFeB industry, Chunshan Company will lose a lot of patent fee income. You should know that China is a big rare earth country, and the cost of producing NdFeB is much lower than that of Japan. Daqin Group can easily snatch most of Spring Mountain's overseas markets.

However, if the patents are not exchanged, Spring Mountain will be at greater risk. Dysprosium-terbium-iron alloy is foreseeable to replace NdFeB. If Chunshan Company cannot obtain the patent authorization of dysprosium-terbium-iron alloy, it will not be able to enter this market, and can only watch Daqin Group crowd out NdFeB with dysprosium-terbium-iron alloy. In this emerging dysprosium-terbium-ferroalloy market, Chunshan Company can't even get a bite of the soup.

It should be a good deal to exchange a market that is facing recession for a market that is booming.

"Chairman Qin, I can't make the decision on this matter, but I will pass on your request to the company's headquarters as soon as possible, and the company's headquarters will soon send a commissioner to negotiate with your company." Sadao Hirano decided to stabilize Qin Hai first, Make another decision. He also said: "We still need to identify the properties of the dysprosium-terbium-iron alloy. Can you please provide us with some samples so that we can conduct research?"

"It's absolutely fine, we are waiting for the arrival of your company's commissioner at any time." Qin Hai readily agreed.

Let me explain: Dysprosium-terbium-iron alloy is fictionalized by the author. Let’s just think it is the black technology of the 22nd century...